Major League Baseball’s official opening day is today and hope “springs” eternal for fans of our nation’s pastime. From Fenway Park to Dodger Stadium and everywhere in between a new season will carry us from the chill of early spring through the heat of summer to the drama of October baseball.
One of the best parts of going to the ballpark is recapturing youth. Ride the “L” to Wrigley for a gorgeous Friday afternoon game and you’ll be joined by throngs of Cubs fans playing hooky from work, decked out in gear, looking forward to hot dogs or brats and Old Style Beers. It is a moment recapturing that thrill of youth when you ditched school to be somewhere you weren’t supposed to be. Ferris Bueller has nothing on those people on the “L”.
Summer gamedays in Boston feel like a college football game. People everywhere are adorned in Red Sox gear. Sunday night baseball in the Bronx is a fun subway ride and a walk past Little League games being played at the same home plate location from old Yankee Stadium. Stop and listen in as many of the locals at those games speak Spanish and watch their kids play “beisbol”.
And there may be no better ballpark in all of baseball than PNC Park in Pittsburgh. If you haven’t been….get there.
One of the things that I’ve come to envy is the walk-up songs for the home players’ at-bats and the entry songs for the closers.
Walk-up songs are not as memorable as the closer entrance songs, mostly because they are shorter in duration and players can change them several times. Closers tend to stick with a signature entrance song. For dominant closers, the closer and the song become intertwined and iconic.
No one did the closer song better than Mariano Rivera of the Yankees with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”—and that’s coming from a Red Sox fan. But that had more to do with his dominance than the actual music. Johnathan Papelbon’s days as a dominant Red Sox closer are remembered for the opening chords of “Shipping Up To Boston” by local favorites The Dropkick Murphy’s. More recently, Mets closer Edwin Diaz created a national buzz by entering to the trumpet blares of “Narco” by Timmy Trumpet.
The hometown closer coming into the game is always a moment. It almost always means it’s the top of the ninth in a close game and the home team that you’ve come to root for is three outs from winning the game.
The question that every daydreaming baseball fan has probably pondered at some point is which walk-up to bat song would they choose? What song would they choose to enter the game as a closer? It makes for a fun discussion among friends.
I’ve got my own shortlist… but picking just one? That is a tough call.
First, the walk-up song. The walk-up at-bat songs get you a 20- to 30-second burst, so the song you pick has to jump out of the speakers and get people’s attention almost immediately. Here are some worthy candidates:
- “Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy with Anthrax: The noise starts right away with the first lyrics being Flavor-Flav yelling “Yeeaaaaah Boooooy” at the six-second mark followed by the powerful voice of Chuck D booming the question “Bass-how low can you go?”
- “Machine Gun” by The Commodores: This instrumental starts right off with a groove that is all swagger and confidence. And its funky sound would be right at home on the soundtrack of a 1980s-era adult movie.
- “S.O.B.” by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats: This one starts off with a humming and hand-clapping beat that would be hard for fans to resist. At the 19-second mark Nathaniel’s revival-like lyrics start.
- “No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys: This song starts with loud lyrics and a dominant guitar riff. But since the Dodgers moved to LA, the Yankees play in the Bronx and the Mets play in Queens and I am a Red Sox, this great walk-up song has no home.
- “Bright Lights” by Gary Clark Jr.: Tremendous guitar work to start this song with a confident and ominous feel. The strength of the song’s start adds an intimidation factor as a song that only a stone-cold assassin could have.
- “Do I Wanna Know” by The Arctic Monkeys: The song starts with a drumbeat that makes you clap along. The beat and swagger in the guitar provide a perfect tempo.
- “Everything Is Everything: by Lauryn Hill: This song starts out with a beat that is perfect for a confident strut to the batter’s box. Lauryn’s incredible voice jumps in about twenty-five seconds into the open.
Songs for closers are longer because they have to walk from the bullpen to the mound and then have a minute or two to get warmed up. That means your closer song has to jump out to hook the fans, but have enough substance to keep them engaged while you get ready to close the game.
- “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones: This is the greatest rock and roll song of all time. It starts off with haunting vocals, builds at the 10-second mark and then the chords power up around the 35-second mark. Then Mick Jagger’s vocals kick in at the 50-second mark. With a few minutes to warm-up this song can really build to its powerful best before you have to throw that first pitch. It is eerie. It is threatening. It is ominous. All the things a closer should be.
- “El Matador” by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs: This starts with some fun drums, a whistle and a big horn section backing funky percussion. And the song’s title El Matador is all about the lone matador facing off against the bull alone in the ring.
- “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit: A great opening guitar riff, a beat that immediately gets fans out of their seats bouncing around and a chorus that fans will sing along to. It is a fun song that will score points for fan participation.
Having said all that, if forced to choose it would be “Gimme Shelter” to close a ball game and a rotation of the other songs walking up to the plate. But everyone sees these things differently.
It is all the fun of the game as the season of possibilities begins anew.
Check out this Spotify playlist with each of Jay’s song selections.
